Ever since she vacationed at Truro as a child, Claudia has been fascinated with the sea and collecting found objects. She discovered another great love, working with glass, when she took a class at the Danforth Museum. By working with shapes and color, she could transfix the eye and ignite the imagination. Her stained glass sun catchers, kaleidoscopes and ornaments sold so well that she left her full time job as a technical illustrator and joined the Clever Hand in 1989.

The connection with other artists, which is one of the benefits of Clever Hand membership, helped her in an unexpected way. Gunvar Lynch, whose batiks of shorebirds and sailboats are great favorites of Clever Hand customers, gave her a large bag of sea glass that she’d collected over the years. Claudia was worried about the long-term health effects of soldering stained glass, and eager to try new materials. Real pieces of sea glass (as opposed to the commercially tumbled kind) are “vanishing gems,” due to increased use of plastic. Claudia combines the smoothest pieces of glass with pearls to create jewelry. She creates abstract hanging sculptures from the less-weathered glassShe welcomes special orders from customers who have collected their own sea glass.